Honka celebrated its 60 year anniversary in Vanajanlinna Castle on September 27. Almost 200 Honka employeesfrom 14 different countries joined the celebrations.
The story of Honkarakenne began 60 years ago when the Saarelainen brothers founded Sahaus- ja Höyläysliike Veljekset Saarelainen in 1958. Nowadays Honkarakenne Oyj and Honka brand have delivered almost 85000 Honka log houses around the world and become experts in healthy and ecological living. Even though the history of Honka is worth a jubilee book, the speeches concentrated in the future. The Honka CEO Marko Saarelainen spoke about the strategy that will take the company all the way to the year 2021. The Head Architect Anne Mäkeläinen introduced Honka Frame, timber frame structured solid wood buildings launched this year to complement the Honka product range and Marketing Director Sanna Huovinen talked about the marketing trends of today and how Honka will be applying them to its own operations.
After the informative part of the day the actual celebrations started. A Finnish actor Veikko Honkanen, who was not chosen to play his role because of his name, read extracts from the jubilee publication Roots and Grain and in a fun way opened upthe character of the founder brothers and the journey Honka has made all the way to where it is now.
”The five brothers who founded Honka shared a defining feature – the large hands they had inherited from their father. Their spade-like palms could handle heavy loads and planed logs with ease, but they also gave birth to ideas and plans which took the company forwards. The brothers were united by an ambitious desire to build houses, put Honka on the map and make everyone aware of log-building…”
The celebrations continued with a dinner, where Marko Saarelainen’s emotional speech made everyone feel like they belong to one large Honka Family. The party continued until the small hours.
